With all the talk of Big Data, there are still big questions as to how to most effectively leverage information and data to make a positive impact on healthcare delivery, cost, and outcomes. One health system leader thinks an approach developed by a Major League baseball team might be a game changer.

CASE STUDIES & WHITE PAPERS

As specified by Meaningful Use Stage 2, EHR certification requires problem list entries to have SNOMED CT encoding. Since October 1, 2015, diagnoses must be coded in ICD-10-CM for billing. Personnel and systems now convert problem list entries in SNOMED CT to billing diagnoses in ICD-10-CM. Sophisticated SNOMED CT to ICD-10-CM mapping is required to allow this task to be done efficiently and accurately.

Clinicians should consider deploying a Workflow Enhancing Search solution that ensures problems, procedures, and diagnoses are properly documented and mapped to standards. This approach not only improves the quality of clinical documentation, but also increases clinician productivity and satisfaction–all critical goals when promoting the adoption of standards such as SNOMED CT and ICD-10.

Determined by the advent in healthcare technologies, the World Health Organization has brought out the updated ICD codes. These new codes encompass a wider range of diseases and their procedures, making it easier for doctors to implement them.

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

Many industry leaders championed a free market approach to healthcare during the 12th Annual World Health Care Congress last week. Here are a few key reasons why I don’t think this model is “the fix” our industry so desperately needs.

ABOUT ICD-10

ICD-10 is the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health problems (ICD). ICD is a medical classification list created by the World Health Organization (WHO). ICD allows more than 14,400 different codes which can be expanded to over 16,000 codes with sub-classifications. ICD-10 was completed in 1992.

The health systems of some 25 countries use ICD-10 for reimbursement and resource allocation, while some countries also made modifications to ICD and use their modified versions. The standard international version of ICD-10 is used for statistics and cause of death reporting in about 110 countries.

In the United States, ICD-10 implementation has been pushed back repeatedly, and in January of 2009 was pushed back to October 1, 2013. ICD-10's basic structure consists of 7 characters, 1-3 are the category of the disease, 4 is the etiology of the disease, 5 is the body part affected, 6 is the severity of the illness, and 7 is a placeholder used for extension of the code to increase specificity.

The difficulty with implementing ICD-10 is the need to update and replace existing software that is incompatible and the large amount of time required to train physicians, staff members, and administrators on the new codes. Practices will also have to update their paperwork and forms while changing or modifying any ICD-related policies and guidelines.